08/02/2018 Victoria Derbyshire

Hello - it's Thursday,

it's 9 o'clock.

I'm Chloe Tilley,

welcome to the programme.

The workplace culture at Westminster

is in need of urgent reform.

A new report shows almost a fifth

of people working there witnessing

or experiencing sexual harassment

in the past year.

MPs will propose a new code

of conduct later today.

It's also about putting

the complainant at the heart

of the process, giving them back

control, because very often,

particularly in the case of sexual

crimes that have been committed,

that individual feels that control

has been taken away from them.

So what should be done?

We'll be speaking to some of the MPs

that are working to change

the culture in Westminster.

No-one has forgotten the bravery

of the firefighters who attended

the Grenfell Tower fire last June -

now five of the men who fought

the fire are running

the London Marathon together.

They're speaking to us for the first

time since it happened.

For parents of premature babies,

being separated from their child

when they're first born

is often the hardest thing.

Now a new study suggests involving

mums and dads in their hospital care

improves the babies wellbeing.

We'll be speaking to parents

of premature babies.

And bad news for music fans -

ticket prices for big name

arena gigs have doubled

since the late 1990s.

While a ticket to see

the Spice Girls was £23 twenty years

ago, going to see Taylor Swift costs

upwards of £60 now.

Hello.

Welcome to the programme,

we're live until 11 this morning.

So have high ticket prices stopped

you seeing your favourite artist?

Have you noticed how much more

expensive it is now?

Get in touch with us.

Share your experiences.

And concert prices aren't

the only thing going up.

Council taxes are on

the increase as well.

They're going up by an average

of £100, as local authorities

struggle to balance their books.

What's happening in your area?

Can you afford to pay more?

And have you or your family got

personal experiences

of cuts to services?

Do get in touch on this

and all the stories we're talking

about this morning -

use the hashtag Victoria

LIVE and If you text,

you will be charged at the standard

network rate.

Our top story today:

Nearly a fifth of people

working in parliament have

experienced sexual harassment,

that's according to a report that's

been released in the past hour.

A cross-party group of MPs,

chaired by the Leader

of the Commons, Andrea Leadsom,

recommends a new code of conduct

to stamp out sexual harassment

and compulsory training to help MPs

"understand and prevent harassment".

The review was set up last year

after several harassment claims

against MPs and staff.

Norman Smith can tell us more.

Just take us through these

recommendations.

There's a huge

range of them, much of them centred

on trying to change the culture at

Westminster. They are talking about

introducing a new code of conduct

for MPs and their staff. There will

be compulsory training for MPs.

There will be a new human resources

Department, to provide advice and

guidance to MPs and there will be

two hotlines set up, one for victims

of bullying and intimidation, and

one for victims of sexual

harassment. But a lot of the really

important changes centre on

investigatory process. . At the

moment if you are a victim of sexual

harassment, you very often have do

complain to your employer, and very

often is your MP, who may be the

perpetrator. That, of course, is a

massive disincentive for people to

make complaints. Alternatively, you

could complain to the political

party. Again, massive disincentive

because if you are a young staffer

you don't really want to complain to

the party, because you may be

looking for a job, a career with a

political party. Under these

changes, the investigatory process

will be in the hands of an

independent investigator, whose job

it will be to carry out enquiries

into all claims of sexual

harassment.

Two areas of controversy. One is

that the accused will be granted

anonymity throughout the whole

process, until they are found guilty

of anything. That is controversial

because, as we know in many

high-profile cases of sexual

harassment, it is often only wants

the person's name is put in the

public domain that other victims

come forward. The other contentious

area is around sanctions. Still

relatively light touch, we're

talking about MPs may be having to

make public apologies, undergo

mandatory retraining, a written

apology to the victim, maybe being

suspended from the Houses of

Parliament for a while. Can you sack

the MP or will the MPB sacked?

No,

not easily. Norman, thank you for

that. We will talk more about it in

the programme.

Annita McVeigh is in the BBC

Newsroom with a summary

of the rest of the days news.

Good morning.

Good morning, Chloe.

95% of councils in England

are planning to raise

council taxes in April,

according to new research.

A survey by the Local Government

Information Unit found 80%

were concerned

about financial stability.

The biggest pressure

on budgets was demand

for children's services,

adult social care and

housing and homelessness.

The Government say the current

system strikes a balance

between relieving financial pressure

and making sure taxpayers do not

face excessive bills.

Adult social care in England

is a "Cinderella service",

which is undervalued and whose

workers are poorly paid, according

to the public finance watchdog.

The National Audit Office says

the Government is failing to deal

with a shortage of care workers,

at a time when demand is increasing.

Here's more from our Social Affairs

Correspondent, Alison Holt.

It's a busy lunchtime at Northfields

nursing home in Sheffield,

demanding work for the care staff

who are looking after residents

with a high level of need,

and today's report outlines just how

difficult it has become

to find the people needed

to provide this vital care.

Joyce, good afternoon.

It's only me.

Sorry to bother you, darling.

Tammy Ardron is the

nursing lead here.

Finding care staff generally

is a problem, but she says

attracting nurses has become

a real issue for them.

I don't think it is as attractive

as maybe the NHS where you have

got your salary packages,

enhanced rates of pay,

unsociable hours.

And I think it's hard work.

It's constant, you have got to be

on the ball 24 hours a day.

The National Audit Office says

whilst working in care

can be rewarding, many

staff feel undervalued.

In 2016-17, more than half

of the workforce was paid £7.50 an

hour or less.

In the same year, staff turnover

was nearly 28% and 6.6%

of jobs were vacant.

But it says there is no government

strategy for tackling the problems.

Only the Department of Health can

produce a workforce strategy that

would speak to the national picture

about the problems we find

of low pay, low prestige

and high turnover rates,

which is reducing quality

of service for people

who are actually receiving care.

In response the Department

for Health and Social Care says

extra money is being put into caring

for vulnerable people and that it

will soon publish a strategy

for the health and care workforce.

Alison Holt, BBC News, Sheffield.

School anti-obesity

programmes don't work,

according to a report

in the British Medical Journal.

Initiatives like encouraging healthy

eating and additional exercise

are unlikely to have any impact

on childhood obesity,

say researchers.

They looked at 600 primary school

pupils over the course of a year,

all of whom were taking part

in an anti-obesity programme.

But they found no improvement

in diet or activity levels.

Australia's Prime Minister says he

will issue a national apology to

survivors of child abuse. A Royal

commission into the treatment of

thousands of children who were

abused in the care of churches,

schools and homes across Australia

described the crimes as a national

tragedy. Malcolm Turnbull's

announcement increases pressure on

state governments and religious

institutions that have yet to sign

up to a scheme to compensate the

victims.

New research suggests

that the nutrient asparagine,

which is found in asparagus

and other seemingly healthy

foods, plays a key role

in the spread of cancer.

Scientists in the UK experimented

on mice with breast cancer,

and found that depriving them

of asparagine made it harder

for their tumours to spread.

This means that altering

the diet of a cancer

patient could potentially

improve their chances of survival.

At least nine people have died

after after an earthquake struck

the city of Hualien in Taiwan.

This is moment that the quake hit

was captured on CCTV in one hostel

in the popular tourist city.

Around 10 people are still missing,

after tremors left

buildings badly damaged.

Rescue work is underway at one

apartment block which has been left

teetering at a 45-degree angle.

More people than ever, are seeking

help for money problems -

short-term borrowing has risen four

times faster than wages.

BBC News has analysed UK

Finance data which shows

there was £37 billion

of unsecured personal

debt last year.

David Rhodes has the details.

There are 9 million people

across Britain that say their debts

are a burden as the cost

of living rises.

For some the debts are mounting up.

I was using credit cards

to pay for food shopping.

Two days before payday and I had £5

left and not much petrol in the car

so it was a case of using £5

for petrol to get to work or use

the £5 to make packed lunches

for my boys for the next two days.

Mel fed her children but her £28,000

debt forced her to seek

help from a charity.

January was our busiest

month we have ever had.

We have seen people in extreme cases

of anxiety and depression.

Figures from UK Finance show

households had outstanding personal

bank loans of £37 billion last year.

That does not include borrowing

on credit cards and payday lending,

but the value of outstanding

personal loans has grown by 25%

in the past three years,

whilst wages for typical workers

have grown by just over 6%.

Charities warn banks are beginning

to lend irresponsibly, but the body

that regulates lending has a clear

message for bankers.

They should not be lending

when someone is in a difficult

situation, where that borrowing

would be unaffordable for them.

We will always see isolated cases,

where firms don't follow those rules

and where we will take action.

With household budgets likely

to remain under pressure

the temptation for people to borrow

is not likely to

disappear any time soon.

David Rhodes, BBC News.

South Korea's president president

Moon Jae-in is to meet members

of North Korea's Olympics delegation

at the presidential

Blue House on Saturday.

Among those attending will be

Kim Yo-jong, the sister

of the North Korean leader.

It will be the first such visit

to the Blue House by any

member of the Kim family.

Tonight sees the European

premier of Black Panther -

Marvel's first black superhero film.

The film which features Michael B

Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o

and Angela Bassett, is on track

to be one of the biggest superhero

films ever based

on pre-ticket sales.

The UK's entry for this

year's Eurovision Song

Contest has been chosen.

# Forever, remember

# We can hold our hands together

through this storm...#.

Singer SuRie was chosen

after her uptempo ballad Storm won

over both a jury and TV viewers

in a telephone vote.

The artist, whose real

name is Susanna Cork,

has performed in the competiton

twice before as a backing singer.

The UK last won the Eurovision

Song Contest in 1997.

That's a summary of the latest BBC

News, more at 9:30am.

Thank you very much.

Do get in touch with us

throughout the morning.

Use the hashtag Victoria LIVE and,

if you text, you will be charged

at the standard network rate.

Let's get some sport now with Hugh -

and it's started!

The Winter Olympics are underway,

even though we haven't had

the Opening Ceremony yet.

Plenty to come and lots to look

forward to.

Freezing temperatures South Korea

over the coming weeks,

but the focus already on one

person keeping her cool -

defending Skeleton

Champ Lizzie Yarnold.

She says staying relaxed will be key

for her if she has any chance

of creating more British

sporting history.

But one slice of history

she will definitely achieve

in Pyeonchang is at

that Opening Ceremony.

Yarnold has today been named

as Team GB's flagbearer,

when the 23rd Games open tomorrow.

She says the ceremony will mark

"the beginning of the biggest two

weeks of her life".

It's an honour that I never really

thought about, but actually means so

much, because the flag represents

the whole team and we as a team

represent everyone in Great Britain

who have watched us, who have

supported us. You know, for parents

to watch us on the TV screen, our

grandparents watching at home, that

is the moment when they say "Great

Britain"

is the moment when they say "Great

Britain". Your skin tingles.

It will

feel like for her at the opening

ceremony.

There's no roof on the Olympic

Stadium in Pyeongchang.

It could be as cold as minus 10.

So, organisers are installing wind

shields - massive heaters -

while those who brave the elements

will be given, blankets and heat

pads amongst other things

to help keep them warm.

But some of the athletes already

saying they won't be attending

because it is just too cold.

Let's talk about Katie Ormerod.

British snowboarder, injured in

training, quite a bad injury but she

is still competing?

Yeah, well not a great

start for Katie Ormerod.

She will be competing

in the slopestyle and "big air"

events but came off a rail

while training yesterday.

She said "Oops" on social media,

as she announced she had

a fracture to her left wrist.

She has stayed upbeat.

The wrist will be well protected.

The slopestyle qualifier

isn't until Sunday -

not the greatest prep.

But if she's to do well,

she'll need to stay on her feet

on and her snowboard.

So maybe that wrist won't be too

crucial for her.

If we look back to the last

Olympics, four years ago, all the

medals for Team GB, is there a

similar expectation, UK sport 's

only one to go one better.

That would be a new record medal

haul at a Winter Games.

5-12 is the target.

Where will those come?

Aside form Yarnold and Ormerod,Team

GB have high hopes,

there was huge disapoointment for

Elise Christie - speed skater.

She crashed out four

years ago in Sochi.

It would be great

to see her do well.

Devastated, she was.

Lots of medal chances on skis -

freestylers James Woods and

Izzy Atkins, Andrew Musgrave

in the cross country.

Lots to look out for.

Coverage of the Opening Ceremony

starts from 10:30am tomorrow

and live on BBC One.

But of course, we'll keep you

updated here on the programme.

Thank you, really looking forward to

the Winter Olympics!

No-one can forget the devastating

scenes from the Grenfell fire

on 14th June last summer.

The fire left 71 people

dead, hundreds homeless

and the community shattered.

One thing that united everyone

in their grief was the admiration

for the firefighters

who risked their lives rescuing

people from the tower.

Jesus Christ, mate!

Christ, BLEEP me.

How are we going to get into that?

Jesus Christ.

Oh, my God.

There are kids in there.

That's a real block.

BLEEP.

Jesus.

It's a towering inferno, isn't it?

It's not possible.

It has jumped up all

over the flats, look.

How the BLEEP is that possible?

North Kensington's to watch were

some of the first on the scene. And

many among them are running in the

London Marathon.

I'm pleased to say we're joined

by firefighters Mike Dowden,

Chris Secret, Tom Abell,

Mike Kirkpatrick

and Justin O'Beirne.

Was that difficult to hear?

. It is.

There are still lots of emotion from

many of our colleagues. It is

something we will have to deal with

and move forward. As doing a

marathon helps us deal and process

events which we witnessed. We need

to move forward in a positive

direction and have something to work

towards.

Let me take you back to

when you got that call, if I can.

Did any of you have a sense of the

scale of what you were going to be

confronted with?

When we turned up

to that particular fire, at first it

was something we deal with

regularly. In a short amount of time

it became something unbelievable. We

just did our job which we normally

do on the night. Unfortunately the

world saw what happened.

When you

are confronted with that, clearly

you go into professional mode. It is

a human, instinctive reaction, isn't

it?

There is you are right. At the

time you don't really consider what

is going on around you. It is about

getting on with your job and doing

what needs to be done. On that

night, it was something no one had

faced before. How about you? I was

not expecting to hear that clip. It

brings it back. Quite difficult to

cope with. I am still receiving

counselling. Our chief came out and

openly spoke about receiving

counselling and stuff like that. I

don't know what the children are

going through in the community at

the moment. For us running the

marathon, for this organisation are

just to support the children, they

are getting counselling is wealth

from this organisation.

How

important is that you?

important is that you?

For me,

personally, I have benefited from it

a great deal. The Fire Brigade are

supplying us with councillors. There

is a charity run by the

firefighters. We have been now for a

week as a watchful stock that was

very helpful as well. -- as a watch

- that was very helpful as well. No

training could have prepared us for

what happened that night. The work

involved in the fire, and people in

the community are all suffering.

Us,

as firefighters, we have had some

kind of exposure to traumatic events

in the past. I have been a

firefighter for 15 years. The kids

and children should not be exposed

to those kinds of events. As

firefighters we can process that but

how does a foldable child process

those events? By running the

marathon it is about raising

marathon it is about raising funds

for an organisation providing

therapy for these children. This is

at the heart of what we are doing.

For people who have not been to the

site of Grenfell Tower, they may not

realise it is not just the community

that was living within that tower.

When I was standing there, there was

a girl on the way to school, on her

scooter. She was stopping and

looking at all of the tributes

talking about the tower and her dad

was saying, come on, we need to go.

It must be so hard when day in and

day out you are confronted with that

outside your home and outside your

school will stop the shell of the

tower is still there.

It looms over

North Kensington, the Parks and play

areas. It is a constant reminder to

everyone in the area about what

happened and it is a real trigger

for post traumatic stress. The

organisation we are running for our

kids who were probably missing from

the original aid efforts. They have

been probably undiagnosed distress

and post-traumatic stress. It is the

children in the entire area of North

Kensington.

How were you affected? I

was not there on the night was my

first night off I ever took. My mum

was calling me saying, you at this

fire? I said, what is going on

question what it is quite a big one.

You should probably have a look. I

checked my phone and went down to

the tower shortly afterwards. I'm

not sure I was expecting but it was

really good to see all the community

pulling together. I tried to go to a

few churches to offer help. So

really people came to us.

really people came to us.

Is it

difficult because you were not the

that night? -- you were not there

that night?

I had not been in the

Fire Brigade long, about six months.

Coming into professional lots of new

people and trying to find my feet,

once we were together we all jailed.

I felt included. That is why I am

running the marathon as well. --

gelled.

Howdy you deal with being

seen as heroes? There is no one who

does not see you guys as heroes of

the night?

We have all joined this

organisation, the London Fire

Brigade, kids who want to help

people. Anyone with the training and

put we have had over the years as

firefighters would do exactly the

same in these circumstances. We

would continue to try to do our best

in whatever is presented to us. The

real heroes... We went home last

night. The real heroes are the

people within the community, the

children in the community, who have

had such a horrific time. They are

the heroes.

It is difficult to take

praise in our position. When so many

people have passed away, it is

difficult to see it in a successful

Lightfoot of it is very difficult to

hear that from our point of view.

You have stayed so many lives?

We

are trying to turn that into

something positive and bring in

money for the Kids In The Green

charity. Hopefully, if people feel

that way towards asker they can find

us and donate. -- towards us, they

can find us and donate.

You can find

us on Facebook and Twitter.

Gelled At Run4grenfell full you can

find us there.

find us there. -- at Run4grenfell.

You can find us there. We have an

opportunity to do something further

beyond our response for that night.

It is a tough journey but a

fantastic journey. It will help us

to help the community. It will help

us to help ourselves, moving in that

positive direction.

Are you finding

it tough?

it tough?

Furthest I had run was

five miles. I am just about up to

ten now. For me, personally, it

would be difficult. We will stick

together. We will all stick

together.

I will be setting the

pace. We will come back to you the

day after. Have any of you guys run

a marathon before?

Another member of

the watch is also running as well.

As running for Kids In The Green

will make it ten times better.

How

has it helped you? Justin Britt you

talked about having had your

counselling. Has the training really

helped?

-- Justin, you talked. I am

still playing rugby and swimming. I

have not done any proper training

for the marathon. I heard it was

quite easy to run. 26 and a bit

miles? People do it with washing

machine is on their backs. The next

couple of weeks maybe I will do some

ten mile runs and see how I get on.

Here is hoping.

He has a good level

of fitness.

of fitness.

We know we can push

ourselves. We know we have mental

strength. We are the focus. The

motivation is to do good and pay

back the community and ticket early

help the children of Grenfell Tower.

With the public support behind us,

we will really, really plod on and

achieve the funding and raise money

for Kids In The Green.

This is not

just about counselling for kids and

it is about giving them fun stuff,

things you should do as a kid.

We do

not want that generation to be

scarred by the tragic events of

Grenfell. We want children to be

children again within that

community.

The tower is still there.

It is such a prominent feature in

the area. It gives something to

focus on. Eight positive spin.

Do

you know how much money you are

likely to raise?

The target is

50,000. That is quite high but we

are hoping to get that. I think we

have about 10,000 at the moment but

we still need a lot of help will

stop we are plugging away.

What is

your strategy? Clearly you are going

to run together. You must have a

training plan in mind or not?

You

end up doing a lot of training on

your own. How will it work? We will

start to do some training runs

together. We need to run at the same

speed and not lose each other. We

have done some training in the gym

together. We need to put down some

miles and see how we get on.

You are

working shifts in different times.

Getting you together must be

something of a challenge.

I live in

Portsmouth. Tom is in the Midlands.

Getting together is to us and we

will try to do around our shifts.

You travel that far as well? Yes, to

do the job. After that experience,

is there something you have found

about yourself, all learned about

yourself, through that horrendous

experience you guys went through?

I

think, none of us had been exposed

to that environment. It was an

unprecedented event, almost on an

international scale. The resilience

you can build up to certain things,

it was not just about the response

that night. There have been a fair

few challengers in the past eight

months we have had to deal with.

Just building up a resilience to

that and moving forward. A lot of

our job entails past experiences.

Everything we have experienced will

hopefully move our son in a good

direction, both in our personal and

professional lives.

-- moves us on.

I want to get you just to watch

this. Just have a listen.

On the night of the fire

we were rescued by two

firefighters after 3:30am.

You came and you took

us out and, of course,

you couldn't save everyone,

but you went into the building

in the inferno, knowing that

you could die any minute.

I would like to say thank

you and wish you good luck

on your initiative to run

the marathon to support survivors

and bereaved families

of the Grenfell Tower.

What do you make of that?

I think we

have met that lady before. It's nice

to see some of the survivors

talking. There were so many

firefighters there on the night,

everyone really stepped up to the

plate. In the days afterwards, the

community were fantastic as well, in

pulling together. We have a lot of

respect for our colleagues and also

the community around Grenfell.

That

is why we are doing it. Because

there is so much emotion around the

community still and within us.

Sometimes if you don't do positive

action, it can fester and show its

face in other ways. We want to move

on. We want to help the community,

just helping people like in that

treaty, that's what it is all about.

Best of luck, best of luck. Thank

you so much for coming in. It is

incredible. Really grateful to you.

Still to come...

Paying an extra £100

for your council tax.

Nearly all local authorities

in England are putting prices up,

because they're worried

about balancing the books.

We'll hear from one of them.

And, would you be happy to have

technology implanted into your body

to boost what its capable of doing?

We've a special report.

Time for the latest news.

Here's Annita McVeigh.

The BBC News headlines

this morning...

Nearly a fifth of people working in

Parliament have seen or experienced

sexual harassment, according to a

report due out this morning. A

cross-party group of MPs cheered by

the Leader of the Commons, Andrea

Leadsom, is expected to recommend a

new code of conduct, and independent

complaints procedure and sanctions

for inappropriate behaviour. The

review was set up last year after

several harassment claims against

several MPs and staff.

95% of councils in England

are planning to raise

council taxes in April,

according to new research.

A survey by the Local Government

Information Unit found 80%

were concerned

about financial stability.

The biggest pressure

on budgets was demand

for children's services,

adult social care and

housing and homelessness.

The Government say the current

system strikes a balance

between relieving financial pressure

and making sure taxpayers do not

face excessive bills.

Adult social care in England

is a "Cinderella service",

which is undervalued and whose

workers are poorly paid, according

to the public finance watchdog.

The National Audit Office says

the government is failing to deal

with a shortage of care workers

at a time when demand is increasing.

Low rates of pay and the pressures

of the job have been blamed.

The Government says

it's considering ways

to overhaul the care sector.

More people than ever, are seeking

help for money problems.

A new analysis by BBC News shows

short-term borrowing has risen four

times faster than wages over

the last three years.

Data from UK finance,

which covers 10 of the UK's biggest

banks and building societies,

also revealed households had

37-billion pounds of unsecured

personal loans last year.

That is a summary of the latest BBC

News.

Thank you.

Here's some sport now with Hugh.

Lizzy Yarnold has named great honour

after being named as the flag bearer

for Team GB at this year's opening

ceremony at the Winter Olympics.

The defending skeleton champion

will lead the team out

tomorrow, ahead of the 23rd Games

in Pyeongchang and says it's

the beginning of 'the biggest

two weeks of her life.

Moeanwhile, Yarnold's teammate

Katie Ormerod has gone on social

media overnight to say

she will still compete

in the 'Big Air' and 'Slopestyle'

despite a wrist fracture suffered

in a fall in training yesterday.

Wembley was about half empty last

night, but the majority of those

who attended left happy, as Spurs

made it through to the FA Cup fifth

round with a 2-0 win over

League Two's Newport County.

And England capatain Eoin Morgan has

backed his batsmen, after defeat

against Australia in

the Twenty20 Tri-Series opener.

Morgan says they were

"right" to take risks.

But the execution

"wasn't up to scratch."

We will have more sport for you

after 10am.

Thank you, more from you throughout

the morning.

Next, if you live in England,

you're likely to see an increase

in your council tax,

as cash-strapped local authorities,

who look after services

from schools to street cleaning,

look to balance their books

amid struggling times.

According to a survey,

around three-quarters of councils

are planning a rise of at least

2.5%, which would mean more than £40

on the average bill.

Charges for things like parking

and burials or cremations

are also due to go up,

depending on where you live.

Let's speak to Councillor

John Fuller - he's from

the Local Government Association,

which represents councils

in England and Wales.

He's also the Conservative leader

of South Norfolk Council.

We can also speak to Donna Jones,

the Conservative leader

of Portsmouth City Council,

which is putting its council tax

up by 4.9%.

An increase of £44 for a Band B

property. Thank you both for joining

us this morning. Donna James,

explain why you need that increase

of 4.9% on council tax.

The cost of

employing people in the country,

thanks to an increase in the minimum

wage, has gone up significantly.

Many of the people that work in

adult social care across the United

Kingdom are paid on the lower pay

thresholds in the UK. So we have had

over £1.5 million added to our wage

bill here at the Council,

particularly because of the

increasing costs of adult social

care. That has led to us having to

increase the council tax, the same

as many other councils across the

country.

Does that mean there won't

be any cuts to services?

We are

having to make £4 million worth of

savings for my City Council that I

lead here in Portsmouth this year.

We have been able to mitigate that

down to just 4% of that £4 million

is actually coming out in cuts to

services. Instead, we have gone out

and generated income as a way to

mitigate the ongoing cuts from

central government grants.

John

Fuller, from your perspective, why

are these rises necessary across the

whole of England?

Donna has put her

finger on part of the problem.

Councils are having inflation

problems, just like anyone else, but

ours are worse. Nationally, the

increase in getting people to the

minimum wage will increase our pay

bills by 5.5% alone over two years.

The number of people needing adult

social care is rising and it is more

and more and more complicated cases

with people living longer. That is a

demographic change. In children's

services, where pressures are very

high, we see people of working age

and children who frankly have some

very profound disabilities as a

result of surviving thanks to

medical interventions, which we

celebrate, but the councils are

having to look after those as well.

We have 18,000 councillors

nationally, 380 councils, in about

every street in this country and we

are all busting a gut to try and

keep council tax under control,

innovating and doing all the right

things. But ultimately, the cost

pressures are such that in adult

social care and children services in

particular, those cost drivers are

almost overwhelming the rest of the

things we do.

What about people who

are watching this who are

struggling? We have seen in the news

today levels of personal debt are

going up. For people who are

struggling to make ends meet, their

wages aren't going up but their

costs are going up. This is the last

thing they need to hear.

Well,

councils are in a difficult

situation. Unlike other areas of

government, defence, the health

service and areas like that, we have

do by law balance and books every

single year. So there is nowhere to

hide. -- balance our books. There

are statutory services the law says

we must deliver. Whilst the

government is giving us a little bit

more money this year, and they say

they have given us an extra £2

billion to help adult social care

pressures wealthier, for example,

some of that money came from

ourselves. We've robbed Peter to pay

Paul and we've kept it together.

We've done as best they can. Council

tax was frozen for quite a few

years, but there is a catch up

perfect now. To keep the show on the

road, our councils and councillors

need to balance the books and the

statutory services which councils

have to do, I'm afraid people will

have to pay a little bit more. I

don't want people to get the

impression we are just sitting back

and doing nothing. With 20-30%

reductions in funding, we have had

to reinvent ourselves for the 21st

century. We have innovated and done

as much as the camps but to keep

things going, I'm afraid the public

will have do help us deliver those

services. Otherwise, adult social

care and children services will

overwhelm all the other things we

do, and then who will collect the

bins?

Donna, you have been trying to

reinvent things and do things in a

different way in Portsmouth. This is

small comfort to a struggling family

watching this thinking, how am I

going to find that extra cash?

In

Portsmouth I have really tried to

keep our tax increases very low, but

we are one of the lowest council tax

collecting city councils in the

country. There are only four council

is run by the Conservatives in

Portsmouth is one of them. I have

really driven through this income

generation strategy. Last year, we

had to take £9 million out of our

budget because of cuts from central

government grants. I only had to

pass £900,000 of that to reducing

front line services. Instead, we

created a property investment

portfolio which is bringing in a

gross of £6.5 million a year,

setting up an energy company that

will be trading by July and I have

been able to give the public in

Portsmouth a commitment, a firm

commitment that we will cut weekly

bin collections collections as many

councils across the country have

done, we will not pose any

libraries. In fact, we are just

opening one of our main library is

now on Sunday, so it is open seven

days a week. We undertook a £5

million regeneration project of one

of our city and museums. I have done

this by bringing an entrepreneurial

approach to running the City

Council. Whilst I appreciate some

councils will struggle to do that,

particularly more rural councils,

but in the cities we do have the

potential to go out and generate

income, to protect public services

that is exactly I'm doing.

You say

you are a proud conservative council

leader. Should this Conservative

government be helping out councils

like yours, giving you money from

central government?

I also sit on

the city region 's board and the key

city 's board of the LGA and on the

national executive of the LGA. The

local government Association have

had some success in lobbying the

government, to make them aware of

that pressure, particularly around

the social care costs, both adults

and children. Therefore, over 18

months ago we were then told by the

government we could then preset,

raise the council tax specifically

for adult social care. So there has

been some movement from the

government, in recognising the

pressure councils are under. Of

course, the austerity programme has

not been easy for everybody. Now

coming into our eighth year of the

austerity programme. But for me, as

a fiscal Conservative, the

alternative of a government that

didn't adopt a strong and

comprehensive austerity programme

would have meant the UK economy

would have been in very poor shape

by now. Look at economies like

Greece and Spain, who failed to

adopt austerity programmes, who are

consistently spending more than the

income every single year, eventually

something has to give. There are

economies have been substantially

downgraded.

Donna James, thank you

for joining us. And we also heard

from John Fuller. As we have been

hearing, funding adult social care

is one of the biggest pressures that

councils are facing. We will be

talking about that in depth in the

next hour. Lots of you getting in

touch with us after that

conversation with those

firefighters, who tackled the

Grenfell Tower Fire and are now

going to run the London Marathon to

raise money for the community. Julie

e-mailed to say these firemen are so

inspiring and so very humble, I

salute you all. Sophie got in touch,

amazing Grenfell firefighters

running the London Marathon, he rose

and stars everyone. Raising for the

children of the community. And

another, Grenfell firefighters are

heroes. And another says,

outstanding to see firefighters

doing even more for Grenfell. Barry

said, Grenfell firefighters are

running Marathon to raise money for

children, these Parahi arose on all

levels. You can get in touch with us

on those stories and all the others

using hashtag Victoria live.

The human body is pretty remarkable.

But imagine if you could upgrade it

in someway, add new bits or change

what your limbs were capable

of doing or looked like.

Would you do it?

And should we be allowed to do

what we want with our bodies?

We sent the BBC's North America

technology reporter, Dave Lee,

to Austin in Texas to meet

the "Body Hackers" -

people who are determined

to push the human body -

and the law - into new territory.

We must warn you, you may

feel a little squeamish

watching parts of his report.

Being a body hacking

enthusiast means enhancing

yourself with technology

or other visual elements.

Some discovered this due

to disability, you that

-- using that as a starting

point to experiment.

To outsiders this might seem

very much like an event

that is on the fringes of society,

but the people who come

here see themselves very

much like pioneers, both

artistically and scientifically.

Body hack con is

into its third year.

People come from all over the world

to show off their work.

So they are subdermal implants,

they are just under the skin over

the muscle, so there is a little bit

of tissue movement allowance,

but there is no discomfort involved.

It's Myoelectric which means it's

muscle powered, so when I flex my

muscles in my residual limb it

allows me to move the hand.

I kind of like the idea that

I can also make my arm

match my personality by adding

lights and colours and matching

to my outfit and things like that.

As well as the social scene here,

this event is used to share research

with the body hacking community.

The subject matter this year

included the prospect of implanting

a device to make a man's penis

vibrate as well as more complex

ideas such as gene therapy.

Amongst the amateurs,

the US government.

Justin Sanchez worked

for a department within

the military that experiments

with new technology.

Its inventions include self

driving cars, GPS and most

famously the Internet.

Now it is turning its

attention to body hacking.

Part of coming to this meeting

is sharing our knowledge

on all of this with a community

that is very much on the leading

edge of all of this.

One of the things that we showed

here at this meeting

is that there is a person who has

difficulty recalling a list of 12

words and without the brain

simulation they could not recall

the 12 words and with direct brain

simulation they were able to recall

those words in almost

a seamless fashion.

All 12 words in rapid

succession, so that was really

the breakthrough moment for us.

If something is on the verge

of being impossible we will start

to explore that area.

It is permanent, they don't fade,

they are going to be purple

for ever, so it was definitely

something I had to think

about for quite some time.

I really became interested

in performance art, body art,

body modification, when I discovered

I was a bad painter in art school.

The hacks being done in this scene

are pushing interpretations

of the law into new areas.

This man, who calls himself meow,

has had his travel card chip

embedded into his hand.

Authorities in Australia

want to force him to remove it.

I think to be honest the reason

they are taking me to court is not

so much like out of malice,

it is out of just like bureaucracy.

It is easier for them to take me

to court than it is for

them to update the law.

As is typical of this type

of technology regulators

and lawmakers don't really know how

to handle some of the things we have

heard discussed here.

The question is, should human beings

be allowed to do whatever they want

with their own bodies?

One person who firmly believes

we should be allowed

to experiment is Dane Lewis.

-- Dana.

She has type one diabetes

and was so fed up with poor devices

from pharmaceutical companies

she set about making

what is essentially

a replacement pancreas.

And what this is is a small computer

with a radio that reads data

from my insulin pump

and my glucose monitor does

the maths for me and sends

the command back to the insulin pump

to automatic insulin delivery

if any changes I needed.

It is not that we don't want to buy

a commercial product that is great.

We would love to buy a commercial

product that works for us.

But these products that come

to market our one size fits

all and we have the technology,

off-the-shelf hardware,

to do this ourselves.

So why not?

Dayna has consulted with the US

drugs regulator - the FDA.

Her low-risk device isn't considered

a treatment and crucially

she is not allowed to sell it.

The same basic stipulations

would apply in the UK.

But others here are apparently less

worried about regulation and safety.

This is Aaron Trawick.

He runs a company that claims it can

cure HIV, aids and herpes.

Disturbingly he told us he plans

to bring his drugs to Aids

patients in Venezuela.

All we can do is we can say to these

people we know that you don't have

access to these medications,

we know that the people

who are taking care of you also

can't get access to these

medications for you.

You know these people are desperate,

you know these people are poor,

and so you say, "OK,

these are the ideal people for us

to try our untested, unregulated,

potentially unsafe drug?"

All I can say is they don't

have any other options.

Is that enough of a reason

to give someone a drug

that might not be saved?

-- be safe.

There is no reason to

believe it isn't safe.

There is no reason to believe it is.

This is my point here.

People are not guinea pigs.

Just because they are ill,

just because they are dying,

does not make them guinea pigs

for your experiment.

We are not talking about

them as guinea pigs.

You can't even test.

There are not even reagents in that

country to be able to test

whether the treatment works.

All we know is if it

works, they don't die.

The FDA told the BBC

companies like this

are considered to be dangerous.

A spokeswoman wouldn't

say if that firm

is being investigated.

So it has been a very interesting

couple of days and I think we have

seen the good and bad

of this industry.

On the good we have seen people

taking control of their health care

in a way that is cheaper and often

more innovative than the traditional

channels would allow,

but on the other side

we have seen people I think

with very questionable motives

and not a lot of concern

for the consequences

of what they are doing.

Coming up...

Westminster needs to urgently reform

how it deals with bulling

and sexual harassment.

-- bullying.

That's the view of a cross

party group of MPs.

We'll be hearing from one of them,

and also from the journalist

who accused Theresa May's former

deputy Damian Green

of inappropriate behaviour.

For parents of premature babies,

being separated from their child

when they're first born

is often the hardest thing.

Now a new study suggests involving

mums and dads in their hospital care

improves the babies wellbeing.

Six months ago, this programme

went to Leeds Hospital,

where they were trialling

such a scheme.

Born at 23 weeks, Lola Pozner

chances of survival were slim. They

painted a really bad picture

that she could have all sorts of

problems.

problems.

In the intensive care unit

it is terrifying it is something

very few people get to see full she

was tiny and had wires coming out of

everywhere. She had a twin brother

but he did not survive. She has

given me something positive to focus

on. As soon as she left intensive

care, mum Anna took over from the

nurses.

One job we have to do is to

take her temperature may be every

three, four hours. At the monitor on

the wall and going in under her arm.

St James' Park was the first in the

UK to introduce family integrated

care.

-- hospital. It is about

getting the family at the centre of

the team, caring for the baby. They

are taught to feed their babies and

taught temperature taking.

Do you

know what you are looking for?

It

has to be within a certain range.

The idea is not new. Family

integrated care was introduced in

the former soviet union in the

1970s. Then it was a solution to the

shortage of nurses. In Leeds, they

say it is not. Be honest, where you

can send it was a cost cutting

measure?

Never. -- were you

concerned? It takes more time to get

the parents competent.

The problems

of having a premature baby are

well-known. The bonding process is

harder to establish. Breast-feeding

rates are lower and there is a

financial impact with car parking,

meals, and loss of earnings will

stop an average day in a neonatal

unit costs families £2000. -- 's

Day. Parents of premature babies are

twice as likely to suffer from

postnatal depression.

It is not

rocket science. It is such a

straightforward thing to do, to

allow parents to look after their

babies. The fact is that families

are going home more confident and

more able to care for their babies

and that means a lot.

For Anna, it

meant bringing her baby home weeks

earlier than expected.

I love her

full she is amazing, my little

miracle. -- I love her. You are,

aren't you?

Well, here to talk about this idea

is Victoria Russell.

She's here with her daughter,

Nancy who was born at 26 weeks

and spent four months

in neonatal care.

Richard Hobden sadly lost his son

Noah, who was born prematurely

setup a charity called

Noah's Big Charity inhis honou.

-- in his honour.

And Dr Chris Gale is a Neonatal

consultant at Chelsea

and Westminster Hospital in London.

Thank you all for carrying,

especially you, Nancy. Victoria, for

people who have not been into a

neonatal unit, an experienced that,

just share with people what that was

like and how difficult it can be for

parents?

It is so difficult. You

have a baby way before you are

expected to and then you are in this

very sterile environment, surrounded

by doctors and your baby is in a

plastic box and you cannot touch

your baby. It is very difficult to

bond. It is terrifying. You do not

know if you're going to take your

baby home at the end of it.

Other

mums have skin to skin contact and

are breast-feeding and you do not

have that time.

My first hold after

ten days, it was a military

operation to get her out of the

incubator with all the wires and

hold her.

Richard, I want to bring

you in. Your son was in neonatal for

several months, wasn't he?

Yes, 91

days. Unfortunately, due to the

nature of his birth, my wife

suffered a cardiac arrest at home, a

heart attack, and as a result they

needed to deliver no at 24 weeks and

six days. He was rushed... He was

taken to Basildon University

Hospital and rushed in. At that age

he was one of the youngest will stop

the lady on the programme had a

child at 23 weeks but at 24 weeks

and unplanned is a harrowing

process. The teams were fantastic. A

lot of it is a waiting game.

Unfortunately, 91 days, certain

tests were being undertaken because

of his age. It was proved his brain

did not develop. Unfortunate

decisions had to be made and he

subsequently passed away. That is

not to say, the care we saw was

exquisite. In all NHS areas there

are staff shortages but the staff

are working there. It is not just a

12 hour shift. It is now before and

an hour after. We have become very

good friends with nurses who are on

the unit helping no. As result of

his we felt we needed to give

something back. -- Noah. We support

Basildon and Royal London Borough is

to provide additional equipment to

help others who have found

themselves in a similar position to

ourselves.

I know that your

experience was a little bit more

hands on like this suggestion.

It

was very hands-on. I was so thankful

that we were encouraged when she was

very young to take part in her care.

Changing nappy, which sounds normal,

but it is a really big deal when

they are so small. To give

medication. Had I not done that on

the ward I would have been terrified

to have done that at home. It was a

really big difference.

You had a

less hands-on experience.

My wife

came out of hospital, I believe it

was 18 day she was in hospital

recovering from the actual heart

attack. When she came to unit, being

separated from Noah for an extended

period was very hard. Coming back in

contact with him was not

straightforward. It was not going to

be. Very quickly they offered skin

to skin care, kangaroo care, and it

was a nominal. Reflecting back on

it, the change in Lydia, it was

amazing. It is a military operation.

We needed to macro nurses to

orchestrate getting him out of the

incubator. -- two nurses. He was on

ventilator support. We have some

cherished photos of Lydia holding

him that mean the world. In terms of

what I understand about the report

and how it helps both parents and

babies is great. As far as I am

concerned, it is within reason. It

depends on the baby, the parents can

the time available. Certain parents

travel in from a distance. Your

report was talking to Chris earlier

about dedication of six hours a day.

My employer was very good and I

could have an extended period of

work. Grandparents were phenomenal.

We had an 18-month-old daughter at

the time. Other people are not that

fortunate. Juggling it while trying

to be there for a child in an

intensive environment is hard.

Let's

bring in Chris. I am interested to

know, why is it important to

dedicate six hours a day? It is not

going to be practical for everyone,

is it?

The trial that was done is a

remarkable achievement. It was a

fabulous piece of research showing

an innovative way of testing parents

involvement. It is a huge

achievement. That is why the six

hour requirement was there, and that

was to try to make it as

experimental as possible so they

could say any effect was due to

having parents that and delivering

the care as part of the clinical

team for a good portion of the day.

What is the difference between what

is done now and what is recommended

in the report?

There are places doing this, like in

Leeds.

Do you want to play with

that? Sorry, carry on.

Most of the

other units in the UK have a lesser

approach of family centred care,

which involves parents as much as

possible with skin to skin kangaroo

care, changing nappies and things,

but fall short of some of the

clinical tasks which are part of

family integrated care.

Is there a

risk if parents are administrative

-- administering drugs?

That is why

people have waited for this research

to say, is it safe, are there

problems question at this research

didn't find any adverse effects, no

problems they identified. They had

nearly 2000 babies in this study

across 25 intensive care units in

Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

This is a very big study. This is

the kind of information and I NHS

units have been waiting for. But I

would like to echo what Richard

said. I think it is about the

parents themselves, in many ways.

Many parents will be able to provide

nearly as much time is that, due to

other children or other caring

responsibilities. Some parents may

not want to do this.

My friend, it

is a difficult environment to be in.

I'm afraid we have to bring this to

a close, but thank you for coming

in. You have been very, very good!

Now time for a weather update,

incredibly cold at the moment and I

guess it is staying that way.

You are right in many ways,

incredibly cold in

You are right in many ways,

incredibly cold in the south-east

but as we had through the day, not

as cold as yesterday, but gets cold

again after that. The forecast today

is less cold, we have rain pushing

south-eastwards, accompanied by a

fair bit of cloud. In the south-east

itself, started off on a dry note

with some sunshine. The weather from

producing the cloud and rain and

drizzle is slowly sinking south, so

the cloud building and it nice and

sunny start being eradicated. Behind

it, Northern Ireland and Scotland, a

lot of bright weather, some

sunshine. The north-east. And a lot

of showers, rain showers in the

north and west. Snow showers as we

push up into the hills. Through this

evening and overnight, a weather

front rejuvenates, bringing heavy

rain in northern England, Wales and

south-west England. As it pushes

into the south-east, behind it a

cold air follows on a lot of

showers, wintry showers in the north

and west of the UK, but also we will

see some of those in parts of Wales,

the Midlands and the south-east.

Hello.

it's Thursday, it's 10 o'clock.

I'm Chloe Tilley.

Changing the culture at Westminster.

One in five people working there has

reported being sexually harassed

over the last 12 months.

over the last 12 months.

It's also about putting

the complainant at the heart

of the process, giving them back

control, because very often,

particularly in the case of sexual

crimes that have been committed,

that individual feels that control

has been taken away from them.

We'll hear from the writer,

Kate Maltby, who accused

the Prime Minister's former deputy

Damian Green of making

inappropriate advances to her -

a claim he's always denied.

She says the proposals are a "step

in the right direction",

but there is still work to do.

The shortage of care

workers in the UK has been

criticised in a new report.

So, is enough being done

to look after vulnerable

people in our communities?

Councils say care workers' wages

are pushing up costs.

We've had over £1.5 million added to

our wage bill here at the council,

particularly because of the increase

in costs of adult social care. That

has led to us having to increase the

council tax.

We'll hear from the owner

of a small care home,

who says he struggles

to recruit staff.

And if you were a fan

of the Spice Girls, you'll have paid

a lot less to see them live

than people who managed to get

to get tickets to see

Taylor Swift, for example.

The BBC has found average ticket

prices for big arena gigs have

doubled since the late 1990s.

So, have the ticket

prices put you off?

Or do you think it's worth the cost?

Get in touch in the usual ways.

Good morning.

It's 9:05am.

Here's Annita McVeigh

in the BBC Newsroom,

with a summary of today's news.

Good morning.

Nearly a fifth of people working

in parliament have seen

or experienced sexual harassment,

according to a report

due out this morning.

A cross-party group of MPs,

chaired by the Leader

of the Commons, Andrea Leadsom,

is expected to recommend

a new code of conduct,

an independent complaints procedure

and tougher sanctions

for inappropriate behaviour.

The review was set up last year

after several harassment claims

against MPs and staff.

95% of councils in England

are planning to raise

council taxes in April,

according to new research.

A survey by the Local Government

Information Unit found 80%

were concerned about

financial stability.

The biggest pressure

on budgets was demand

for children's services,

adult social care and

housing and homelessness.

The LGA says Council leaders

are doing all they can to limit

the pressure on taxpayers.

I don't want people to get the

impression that we are just sitting

back doing nothing. With 20-30%

reductions in funding, we have had

to reinvent ourselves for the 21st

Century Fox we have innovated and

done as much as we can but to keep

things going, I'm afraid the public

will have two help us deliver those

services, because otherwise adult

social care, children services will

overwhelm all the other things we do

and then who will collect the bins?

Adult social care in England

is a "Cinderella service",

which is undervalued and whose

workers are poorly paid, according

to the public finance watchdog.

The National Audit Office says

the government is failing to deal

with a shortage of care workers

at a time when demand is increasing.

Low rates of pay and the pressures

of the job have been blamed.

The Government says

it's considering ways

to overhaul the care sector.

School anti-obesity

programmes don't work,

according to a report

in the British Medical Journal.

Initiatives like encouraging healthy

eating and additional exercise

are unlikely to have any impact

on childhood obesity,

say researchers.

They looked at 600 primary school

pupils over the course of a year,

all of whom were taking part

in an anti-obesity programme.

But they found no improvement

in diet or activity levels.

That's a summary of

the latest BBC News.

More at 10:30am.

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